Fluke injury ends Trochiano’s promising season

Manhattan freshman Will Trochiano, among the team and conference leaders in a variety of offensive categories, saw his season cut short last week with a fractured elbow.

Courtesy of Manhattan College

Manhattan freshman second baseman Will Trochiano saw his promising season cut short by a fluke injury last week versus Fordham.

Courtesy of Manhattan College

By SEAN BRENNAN

All things considered, Will Trochiano’s freshman season at Manhattan College was going about as good as anyone could hope.

The Jaspers second baseman and leadoff hitter was in the midst of a superlative season. He was second on the team in batting with a robust .333 average. He was tied for the team lead with 23 runs scored. He was tied for third with seven doubles. And he was the team leader in on-base percentage at a lofty .426.

Trochiano even reached base safely in the Jaspers’ first 21 games before that streak came to an end versus Columbia, which helped him twice earn rookie of the week honors with the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

But Trochiano’s promising season came to an abrupt halt last week when what amounted to little more than a routine play cost the rising freshman his season.

The Jaspers were in the third inning of their series opener against Fordham University when a Rams player stroked a shot up the middle. Trochiano went to his left to glove the ball, but that’s where everything went very wrong.

“I went to go field the ball at second, and when I was somewhere around second base, I had to make a hard throw to first base,” Trochiano said. “My arm just fractured on that play. I felt my arm pop, and I thought I tore something in my triceps.”

Trochiano completed the play to end the inning but he knew something was not right with his arm as he came off the field.

“I knew something was wrong right away because I felt the pop and then I had this rush of adrenaline to my arm,” Trochiano said.

He was pulled from the game, anda later X-ray and MRI showed an elbow fracture. But as bad as the result was, it could have been even worse.

“I found out there was no tear,” Trochiano said. “They were saying originally I’d be out six to eight weeks. But I was also told that my arm was torn and that would definitely be the end of my season. But there was no tear, but I’m still pretty sure my season is over anyway. This is just devastating.”

It was not only a huge disappointment for Trochiano, but for the Jaspers as well, who lost their spark plug and table-setter due to the flukiest of injuries.

“I was talking to a doctor, and he has been in practice for 35 years, and he told me that this was the first injury he had ever seen like this, a fracture coming from a throw,” Trochiano said. “It’s just unheard of.”

Not being able to play is hard enough, but not being to ever play again with Manhattan’s upperclassmen — a group Trochiano has grown close with this season — is all the more traumatic, something he labeled “definitely a 10” on the disappointment scale.

“I’m super disappointed,” Trochiano said. “I was so devastated to know my season was over. And I’ve made good friends with a lot of the seniors and Fabian Peña, our junior catcher who will be getting drafted this year. So I won’t get to play with those guys anymore. It’s tough.”

Trochiano also was looking forward to playing against his older brother Justin, a senior on MAAC-rival Monmouth. But now that, too, is no longer in the cards.

So for now, Trochiano has gone from vital cog in a resurgent Manhattan baseball program to glorified cheerleader for the Jaspers. All because of one routine throw.

“I’m in a splint, so it kinds of limits me,” he said. “I’m right-handed, so it even sucks with schoolwork. But there will be no surgery because my fracture was lined up with my arm. So as long as that doesn’t move, I won’t need surgery.”

A small consolation prize for a big part of Manhattan’s baseball program.